FY 2009 Recovery Act JAG Program

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act') and by 42 U.S.C. 3751(a). The stated purposes of the Recovery Act are: to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; and to stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. The Recovery Act places great emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars.

Among other things, it creates a new Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and a new website ' Recovery.gov ' to provide information to the public, including access to detailed information on grants and contracts made with Recovery Act funds.

The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funded under the Recovery Act is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Recovery JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, from multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces to crime prevention and domestic violence programs, courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives. Recovery JAG funded projects may address crime through the provision of services directly to individuals and/or communities and by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice systems, processes, and procedures.

The city of Burlington, through the Burlington Police Department (BPD), will use its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act JAG award for two primary objectives. First, the BPD will create jobs that will augment their existing community policing strategies, and free resources to be more flexible and effective. Second, the BPD will leverage technology to assist in freeing officers to spend more time conducting proactive operations and making connections to residents and businesses. The BPD is the largest and busiest municipal policing agency in Vermont, serving Vermont's largest city on the east coast of Lake Champlain, 30 miles from the Canadian boarder. Their 40,000 annual calls for service are handled by a staff of 100 sworn Officers and 12 full-time Emergency Communications Specialists. The street outreach worker position will provide street-level intervention and connection to services for a wide range of persons suffering from mental health, substance abuse issues or in need of social services. The graffiti team/community involvement coordinator position will facilitate bringing a wide variety of resources to remediate the growing effects of graffiti throughout their community, assist in coordination of resources related to parallel justice program ' supporting victims/survivors of crime, organizing community-based restorative justice panels, organizing community activities around crime, disorder reduction, or organizing volunteers-in-service to police. The Street Level Drug Interdiction Initiative will create a designated stream of funding (overtime) for patrols targeting street-level drug-interdiction and other emerging crime trends in their inner-city district. The following equipment will be purchased to further a variety of programs to deliver enhanced community services: replacement of aging portable radios, an online crime mapping system, digital imaging cameras, and computers. Additionally, they will use funds for community policing and professional development training, along with tuition for specialized training.

NCA/NCF